ATER- CG RON ATA 




PS 



EDlVvUND -CLARENCE -STEDMAH 




COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MATER CORONATA 



MATER CORONATA 

RECITED 

AT THE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 

OF 

YALE UNIVERSITY 

XXIII OCTOBER MDCCCCI 

BY 

EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 

L.H.D., LL.D. 



o3 



BOSTON AND NEW YOJIK 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

MDCCCCI 



THF t'SRARY OF 
CO'*' 05? ESS, 

Two Coi-'ES KeceivED 

NOV. 29 1901 

COPVKIIQMT ENTRY 

CLASS dt XXa Wo. 

-5- / r ff r 

COPY tt. 



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7- 



COPYRIGHT, I90I, BY EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Published November, igoi. 



VNIVERSITATIS YALENSIS 

PRAESIDI SOCIIS 

ALVMNIS DOCTORIBVS DISCIPVLIS 

ALVMNVS 

QVI BENEFICIORVM MEMOR CECINIT 

CARMEN SAECVLARE 

D. D. D. 



MATER CORONATA 



All things on Earth that are accounted great 
Are dedicate to conflict at first breath ; 
Nature herself knows grandly to await 
The masterful estate 
Which from her secret germ Time conjureth. 



II 



The elements that buffet man decree 
His lustihood prevailing to the end ; 
The free air foreordains him to be free ; 
Their stern persistency 
The ages to his resolute spirit lend. 



Ill 



So rose our Academe since that far day 

When reverently the grave forefathers came. 

In council by the shoal ancestral bay. 

To speak the word, — to pray, — 

To found the enduring shrine without a name. 



IV 



Ye, at the witchery of whose golden wand 
New cloisters rise to splendor in a night, — 
Find here your model ! Here the barriers stand 
That were not made to hand. 
That have the puissance Time confers aright. 



Born with the exit of that iron age 

When Nova Angha to New-England grew. 

Learning's new child put up a hermitage. 

Whereof no godly mage 

As from a mount the boundaries foreknew ; 



VI 



No oracle betokened the obscure 

Grim years encountering which the elders bowed, 

Yet knew not faintness nor discomfiture. 

But set the buttress sure 

That should upstay these tabernacles proud ; 



VII 



These fanes, that bred their patriot to vie 
In steadfastness, erect of thought to live, 
Or, when the country bade, undauntedly 
Without lament to die 
Save that he had but one young life to give. 



VIII 



Twice, thrice, and yet again, that sovereign call 
Rang not in vain ; nor from this ancient grove 
Hath ceased to broaden, as the days befall. 
The famed processional 
Of the mind's workmen who to greatness move. 



IX 



No feebling she that reared them, no forlorn 
And wrinkled mother lingering in the gray ; 
Fadeless she smiles to see her shield upborne 
It is her morn, her morn ! 
The past, but twilight ushering in her day. 



Strong Mother ! thou who from the doorways old, 

Or housed anew in beauty renovate. 

Hast spread thine heritage a hundredfold, — 

Hast wrought us to thy mould 

Whether the bread of ease or toil we ate ; 



XI 



Thou who hast made thy sons coequal all. 
The least one of thy progeny a peer 
Wearing for worth not birth his coronal, — 
The watchmen on thy wall 
Wax proud this sundawn of thy cyclic year ! 



XII 



The lustres of a new- won firmament, 

Spanned from the height thine upmost turrets crown, 

Relume the course whereon thy thoughts are bent, — 

Whereto the words are sent 

That bid thy children pass the lineage down. 



XIII 



Ere yet that rainbowed dome thou seest complete, 

Mankind, be sure, shall Earth more nobly share ; 

No churl his measure shall unduly mete ; 

And where are set thy feet 

Life shall be counted lordlier and more fair. 



XIV 



Science shall yield new spells for man to know. 

And bid thee consecrate to mortal weal 

All that her henchmen in thy gates bestow ; 

Nor lofty then, nor low. 

Save to his race each ministrant is leal. 



XV 



Thine be it still the undying antique speech. 

The grove's high thought, the wing'd Hellenic lyre, 

Unvexed of soul thy acolytes to teach, — 

So shall they also reach 

Their lamps, and light them at a quenchless fire ; 



XVI 



And wield the trebly-welded English tongue, 
Their vantage by inheritance divine, 
Invincible the laurelled lists among 
Wherein the bards have sung 
Or sages deathless made the lettered line ; 



XVII 

Till now, for that sure Pentecost to come. 
The globe's four winds are winnowing apace 
Fresh harvestings of speech, in one to sum 
A world's curriculum 
When East and West forgather face to face. 



XVIII 

Thus first imbued, thy coming host the clues 
To broad achievement shall descry the more ; 
What thou hast taught them shall in statecraft use 
Greatly ; nor can they choose 
But follow where the omens blaze before ! 



XIX 



Even as our Platonist's exultant soul 

That westward course of empire visioned far, 

Now round the sheen, to Asia and the Pole, 

Time charts upon our scroll 

The empearled pathways of an orient star. 



XX 



There the swart Malay's juster league begun 

Takes from our hands the tables of the law ; 

The mild Hawaiian raises to the sun 

The folds himself had won 

Ere the Antilles their deliverance saw. 



XXI 



Time's drama speeds : albeit, alas ! its chief 

Protagonist, augmenter of the State, 

Fell as the Prompter turned that unread leaf, — 

And oh, what tragic grief 

Just when consummate towered the action great ! 



XXII 



To strong brave hands the rule, the large intent. 
Have passed. Nor tears alone that some far plan 
Required the master's hfe-blood interblent — 
To point his monument 
And leave once more the hkeness of a man. 



XXIII 



But we, Yale's living multitude rebrought 
From farthest outposts of the pine and palm, 
We know her battlements of iron wrought, 
Her captains fearing naught, 
Her voice of welcome rising like a psalm. 



XXIV 

We know the still indissoluble chain 

Wherewith the sons are to the Mother bound ; 

Nor unto any shall she call in vain 

Who in her heart have lain 

And trod the memoried precinct of her ground. 



XXV 



God dower her endowering her brood 

With knowledge, beauty, valor, from her breast, 

Ingathering from the peopled town, the wood. 

The island solitude. 

The land's most loyal and its manfullest ! 



XXVI 



God keep her ! Yea, that Soul her soul endue, — 

That Spirit of the interstellar void. 

That mightier Presence than the fathers knew, — 

The source of light wherethrough 

Heaven's planets shine in joy and strength deployed. 



XXVII 



That Power, — even that which doth impart a share 

And semblance of divinity to our kind, — 

Hold thee, dear Mother, here and everywhere, — 

Thee and thy sons, — in care. 

Through centuries yet still loftier use to find ! 



Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton b' Co, 
Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 



mov 3v ifeoi 



NOV 29 1901 

1 copy DLL. ro Cat. ijiv. 

NOV. 30 1901 



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